Idolator: iTunes

A Midsummer Afternoon's iTunes Cleanup

Maura Johnston — Thu, 26 Jun 2008 09:00:00 EDT

How are you going to figure out your best albums of the first half of '08 if your iTunes Music Folder is completely disorganized? This dude has a bunch of ways to whip said files into something resembling shape, so you can figure out just what, exactly, has been droning in the background while you've been working all these months. (Unfortunately this won't be much help to people like me, who have a backlog of albums from this year that they haven't imported into iTunes yet because they're that lazy/frazzled/annoyed by their computers' tendency to balk when iTunes and Firefox are open at the same time. Not to mention that they played into all the trend stories and bought a lot of new releases on vinyl.) Feel free to share your own musical-organization techniques in the comments—especially those of you who have library-science degrees, since I'm sure you all have some crazy categorization schematics up your collective sleeves. [internet jogging via the listenerd]

Say goodbye to those days when you could ...

Maura Johnston — Wed, 25 Jun 2008 09:45:00 EDT

Say goodbye to those days when you could pick up an Adele CD with your Caramel Frappucino: Starbucks will dump almost all of its in-store music offerings over the next three months, according to sources. This news shouldn't come as much of a surprise, given that the coffee company has been slowly inching away from its entertainment-business aspirations over the past few months, but it probably isn't making music execs all that happy, given that Starbucks was apparently moving some 4 million CDs a year. [Silicon Alley Insider]

Viva La Album Sales

Maura Johnston — Wed, 18 Jun 2008 14:45:00 EDT

"Coldplay has already shattered Jack Johnson's previous one-week iTunes sales record of 140k in a single day." [Hits]

Kid Rock Hopes His Summer Jam Doesn't Have To Be On iTunes

Anthony Miccio — Wed, 18 Jun 2008 09:30:00 EDT

Kid Rock must know better than anyone that "All Summer Long" would cross over bigtime if he'd just bounce across our TV singing it while earbud-accessorized silhouettes dance around him, but in the name of Fats Domino he must refuse. "Back in the day, we all know the stories of the Otis Reddings and Chuck Berrys and Fats Dominos who never got paid...I will be on iTunes eventually because I can't avoid it, but I like to always stick to my guns and prove a point and do something original and because I believe in it." This might help explain why the song has yet to hit the Hot 100, and has only scraped a few peripheral charts. At least he's OK with you stealing the fucker so you can sing along at shows—this way, he doesn't have to suffer the indignity of a weak royalty rate.

The performer - whose real name is Robert Ritchie - said his record company Atlantic had asked him to "stand up for illegal downloading" a few years ago because it told him "people are stealing from us and stealing from you".

"And I go: 'Wait a second, you've been stealing from the artists for years. Now you want me to stand up for you?'

"I was telling kids - download it illegally, I don't care. I want you to hear my music so I can play live."

Asked whether he was worried about illegal downloading, he replied: "I don't agree with it. I think we should level the playing field. I don't mind people stealing my music, that's fine. But I think they should steal everything.

"You know how much money the oil companies have? If you need some gas, just go fill your tank off and drive off, they're not going to miss it."

But he said he did not implement that advice himself. "No, I don't steal things. I'm rich."

If I was rich I wouldn't even speak the word CD-R, so I hear ya, Kid. The hunger for a big hit may be getting to the Kid already; "All Summer Long" is already available on iTunes in Europe, and the track will be soon available for download in the UK as well.

Kid Rock boycotts iTunes over pay [BBC]

Coldplay Accused Of Swiping "Viva La Vida" From Mustachioed Indie Rocker

Anthony Miccio — Mon, 16 Jun 2008 10:45:00 EDT

In October 2007, the Brooklyn outfit Creaky Boards was excited to see a person who resembled Coldplay's Chris Martin enjoying their CMJ festival performance. Less than a year later, that enthusiasm has turned into frustration as bandleader Andrew Hoepfner discovered that Coldplay's iTunes-ad-featured "Viva La Vida" had a melody that was kind of close to their "The Songs I Didn't Write," performed at the aforementioned concert. Did Martin go hopping from show to show at CMJ, lifting bits for his next album? Don't be daft, say the superstars; "Viva La Vida" was allegedly demoed over a year ago. This hasn't stopped Hoepfner from creating a video clip comparing the tracks and publicizing his band.

Oddly, Hoepfner notes that his song's subject, listening to the radio, would probably be a better fit for an iTunes ad than Coldplay singing about the Crusades. So far he's not seeking any financial restitution, and he's even joking that he stole the progression from Zelda on his band's blog. The similarity is vague enough that I think it's pretty canny of him to use these similarities as a way of getting the Creaky Boards some publicity, instead of going the more expensive lawsuit route. Probably won't get them closer to that Apple deal, though.

Coldplay Deny Stealing Song [Guardian]
coldplay + itunes steals viva la vida from creaky boards! [YouTube]

Coldplay's iTunes Ad Somehow Not Worst Thing On TV

Anthony Miccio — Thu, 22 May 2008 13:00:00 EDT

Part of the reason I took my DVR recording of American Idol off fast-forward during the the above ad was to make my girlfriend groan about how much she hates Chris Martin and his stupid face. But the title track of Viva La Vida is actually getting stuck in my head in a more than pleasant way. Somebody's figured out how to mix the Arcade Fire's ornate bombast (it might be about the French Revolution!) with the usual Bonosity, and, well, maybe I was too quick to assume the new album was bound to stink. Then again, there are only two other singles by the group I can actually get all the way through. (And "Clocks" ain't one of them.)

The variety of guitar effects alone might have done it, but when the Crazy Town dudes announced in a SPIN singles wrap-up that they heard "Yellow" was about an STD, this song went straight to the top of the band's accomplishments. He was so cute before he grew that stubble, too!

I know I come off very flip and snarky in my writings here, but I'm actually a very sensitive man. A man who has felt regret. A man who has loved and lost. Much like Chris Martin, except you'd never want to see me strut around in a tight, white, long-sleeved shirt.

Nothing from X&Y pressed my buttons, but I might actually check out Viva La Vida if there's going to be more Neon Joshua Tree on it. And if that last bit in italics unnerves you, run now. I'm sure this album's promotional cycle has only begun.

Coldplay Apple iTunes Viva La Vida [YouTube]
Coldplay - Yellow [YouTube]
Coldplay - The Scientist [YouTube]

Today In Unsurprising Major-Label Negotiation Tactics

Maura Johnston — Tue, 20 May 2008 16:30:00 EDT

With the forthcoming launch of the 3G iPhone, Apple is trying to make the iTunes Store available to any iPhone users, and not just those who are already within reach of a wireless connection. But he needs to make deals with the major labels in order for this to happen, and so the majors are hoping that this means the idea of variable pricing—in which, say, Hard Candy will cost the few people who still want to buy it out there an extra couple of bucks—is back on the table, as is the whole "Comes With Music"-like all-you-can-eat plan that gives over a chunk of change to the labels for each device sold in exchange for said devices having "any" songs (that the labels want to keep in digital print and, presumably, don't feel like overcharging for) available to users who want them. Not to seem all biased and stuff, but I do hope Mr. Jobs stays strong in these negotiations, because the whole Comes With Music plan in particular seems like a stinker with a shelf life that will come screeching to a halt as soon as the labels figure out that they've made all the money they can from it. [Listening Post]

Overly excitable music-business types are ...

Maura Johnston — Wed, 14 May 2008 09:45:00 EDT

Overly excitable music-business types are looking at Apple's recent deal with HBO, where top-tier shows like The Sopranos are priced at $2.99 per episode on the iTunes Store (as opposed to The Wire's $1.99-a-pop price), as a sign that the company may someday embrace variable pricing, which would allow the music business to revitalize itself by charging the $2.99-a-song price that "4 Minutes" and "Touch My Body" so rightfully command. Thankfully, Anthony Bruno at Billboard splashes a bit of water on this notion by pointing out that the shows that HBO has placed on iTunes last quite a bit longer than three minutes and thirty seconds—which, one would think, might attract just a bit more money—and that most of the variants in price can be explained away by the shows' relative lengths. Prediction: Some poor major-label act is going to be corralled into releasing a 10-minute debut single for the purposes of "testing the $2.99-a-song waters" within the next six months. [Billboard]

Forever Leavin' Pork & Beans: Big Chart Moves By Summer Single Contenders

Chris Molanphy — Fri, 02 May 2008 14:00:00 EDT

Chris "dennisobell" Molanphy, our resident chart guru, looks at the upward, downward, and lack of movement on this week's Billboard charts:

You can't kill Leona Lewis, you can only make her stronger. For the first time in 30 years, a song returns to the No. 1 spot on Billboard's Hot 100 after being evicted twice. Love her or hate her, Ol' Dead Eyes is back.

As unusual as Leona's threepeat is, the more interesting moves this week are made below the No. 1 spot, in part because it looks like the songs we may be hearing during car-radio season are hitting the charts now. That includes big debuts by the unsinkable Chris Brown and heartthrob Jesse McCartney, a first-time appearance by new British "It" girl Duffy, and a huge move on Modern Rock by a certain gang of veteran geek-rockers trying to regain their cred.

First, Leona's unusual feat: In general, it's not uncommon for songs to return to No. 1 after falling out for a week or two; just last year, two songs (Maroon 5's "Makes Me Wonder" and Soulja Boy's "Crank That") pulled it off. But "Bleeding Love" is the first song on the Hot 100 to go to No. 1, drop out, return, drop out again, and then come back a third time since the immortal "Le Freak" by Chic in 1978.

Back then, Chic's competition for the top slot came from Barbra Streisand's and Neil Diamond's "You Don't Bring Me Flowers" and the Bee Gees' "Too Much Heaven"—a classic disco song outlasting two sappy ballads. This year, it's the sappy ballad beating back the more uptempo material: Lewis first evicted Mariah Carey's "Touch My Body" and now ousts Lil Wayne's "Lollipop," which falls to No. 2.

Each time "Bleeding" has hit No. 1, there's been a sales-related deus ex machina assisting it. The first time, it was Oprah (now that's a deus!); the second time, the release of Lewis' album and the attendant hype surrounding it. This time, it's Lewis' performance of the song on last week's American Idol results show, which boosts sales of "Bleeding" to a new peak of 233,000 downloads.

However, as I've said here before, Lewis' ballad is becoming legitimately huge with the public and will likely hang around the upper reaches of the charts for a while. At this writing, more than a week removed from her Idol performance, "Bleeding" is still the top seller on iTunes. Any of this week's top four songs could be No. 1 next week, but for once, plain old inertia might keep Lewis there two weeks in a row.

Clear The Way: The number of debuts on the Hot 100 this week, 10, isn't unusual, but the bona fides of the songs debuting is, kinda. At least half of them, out of the gate, stand a legitimate chance of reaching the winners' circle. (One of them is already there!) It all depends on how soon they catch on with radio audiences. Let's review a half-dozen of them.

Chris Brown, "Forever" - Debuting all the way up at No. 9, it matches Yael Naïm's fluke hit "New Soul" as the highest debut of the year so far. Actually, this is a fluke hit too, as improbable as that seems. "Forever" isn't the "official" fourth single from Brown's sophomore album Exclusive. That would be the vaguely lewd slow-jam "Take You Down," which debuted on the Hot 100 last week (way down at No. 99) and on the R&B/Hip-Hop chart more than a month ago (it's just outside that chart's Top 20 now). "Forever," on the other hand, is a bonus track on the forthcoming "special edition" rerelease of Exclusive. As a kind gesture, the Zomba label released the song early on iTunes for those who already bought Brown's album. Those loyal fans snapped up 113,000 copies of the song, which entirely explains its high placement on the chart this week; it's receiving no measurable airplay so far. You can expect "Forever" to drop next week, which ironically makes it the only one of this week's debuts to have likely already peaked.

Jesse McCartney, "Leavin'" - Another huge debut, at No. 14, the leadoff single from McCartney's forthcoming Depature boasts production assistance from a dream team (no pun intended) of Terius "The-Dream" Nash, Tricky Stewart, and the Neptunes. As with Brown's latest single, McCartney's high debut masks a bit of weakness: it's been available to radio programmers for nearly two months, but only its recent digital release (95,000 downloads, the ninth-biggest seller of the week) got it onto the chart. So it'll probably have a couple of bad weeks on the list until radio catches on. But with no similar singles competing with it—and a solid hook and thumping beat—"Leavin'" could solidify into a genuine hit by summer.

Lil Wayne, "Milli" - A fairly impressive debut at No. 60, "Milli" is a less obvious pop crossover than "Lollipop," with plenty of Wayne's conversational spew. The fall of Weezy's first No. 1 hit isn't fazing him much; he's already unleashed the followup on iTunes, with Tha Carter III still weeks away from release. (Theoretically—I wouldn't bet the farm on this—the album comes out June 10.) As is typical for the world's most prolific recording artist, "Milli" has been out for a couple of months already on mixtapes under the name "A Milli" (sometimes "A Millie"). We've grown accustomed by now to Weezy dropping singles regularly; the difference is, he's now enough of a pop presence that his singles actually perform on the Hot 100.

Usher feat. Beyonce & Lil Wayne, "Love in This Club, Part II" - Debuting at No. 79 on the Hot 100 and a stunning No. 14 on the R&B/Hip-Hop Chart, this looks like a booming-jeep smash already. As reviewed last week by Maura, the rethink of Usher's No. 1 smash is a revelatory transformation of an already-established hit into something breezier and groovier. R&B radio is already signaling its preference: the same week "Part II" makes that massive debut, its "part I" predecessor falls out of the R&B/Hip-Hop chart's No. 1 slot (giving way to Lil Wayne's "Lollipop").

Weezer, "Pork and Beans" - A Hot 100 debut at No. 84, but that's not the big news: on the Modern Rock chart, Rivers Cuomo's bid for post-"Beverly Hills" acceptance vaults 16 notches to No. 3, suggesting it could top the chart in near-record time. That rock format is probably the song's only source of airplay so far, but then, with the exception of the fluke "Hills," it's been a long time since Weezer was a regular Top 40 radio presence. The main cause of "Pork's" Hot 100 debut is its 17,000 downloads sold—a fairly light total that suggests fans are a bit wary. Or maybe the old-school Cuomo-heads are holding out for the Red Album.

Duffy, "Mercy" - Debuting at No. 87, the 21st-century Lulu (I'm with Ken Barnes: these Dusty Springfield comparisons are bullshit) actually sold more downloads last week (nearly 18,000) than Weezer. Radio airplay is still light, so Duffy's strong sales are probably attributable to "Mercy" getting played during a recent episode of ER. Still, the helium-voiced British gal's irresistible hit has that summer vibe all over it, and MTV is starting to play the hell out of the video (at, um, three in the morning). So theoretically the hype will turn real pretty soon.

...And One More Thing: If you're an iTunes user who's nostalgic for the middle of the aughts, be sure to check out the special section Apple posted to commemorate the iTunes Music Store's fifth anniversary this past Monday (careful, autoloads iTunes).

Included in the package are lists of all of Apple's biggest sellers, year by year, from 2003 through 2007. The lists for the first two years, 2003 and 2004, are the most interesting to me. Digital sales have only been used to compile the Billboard charts since early 2005, so this is the first time I've seen all-encompassing lists of Apple's biggest buck-a-song sellers from the Store's early days.

The top download of 2003: OutKast's "Hey Ya!"—which sounds obvious, until you consider that André 3000's megasmash was released about two months before the end of that year. The likely explanation for its end-of-year dominance is that Apple added Windows compatibility for iTunes in October 2003, which exponentially increased the Store's userbase just as OutKast released its biggest single ever.

The top seller for 2004 was Maroon 5's annoyingly inescapable "This Love." Actually, the whole 2004 list is a parade of minivan-friendly adult pop, with Hoobastank, U2, the Black Eyed Peas, and Counting Crows taking the rest of Apple's top five, and a second Maroon 5 track, "She Will Be Loved," making the year-end top 10, too. That brings up another theme of Apple's Store: its evolution from a yuppie-friendly, Starbucksish place for early iPod adopters into the biggest teen gathering place on earth. You really see it on the singles side: by 2007, the list of top-selling albums continues to house soccer-mom-friendly fare like Maroon 5, John Mayer and Amy Winehouse, but the top-selling single is the no-adults-allowed smash "Crank That" by Soulja Boy.

Top 10s
Last week's position and total weeks charted in parentheses:

Hot 100
1. Leona Lewis, "Bleeding Love" (LW No. 2, 11 weeks)
2. Lil Wayne feat. Static Major, "Lollipop" (LW No. 1, 7 weeks)
3. Jordin Sparks with Chris Brown, "No Air" (LW No. 3, 17 weeks)
4. Madonna feat. Justin Timberlake, "4 Minutes" (LW No. 6, 6 weeks)
5. Usher feat. Young Jeezy, "Love in This Club" (LW No. 4, 11 weeks)
6. Ray J & Yung Berg, "Sexy Can I" (LW No. 7, 13 weeks)
7. Mariah Carey, "Touch My Body" (LW No. 5, 11 weeks)
8. Sara Bareilles, "Love Song" (LW No. 8, 26 weeks)
9. Chris Brown, "Forever" (CHART DEBUT, 1 week)
10. Chris Brown, "With You" (LW No. 9, 22 weeks)

Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs
1. Lil Wayne feat. Static Major, "Lollipop" (LW No. 3, 7 weeks)
2. Mariah Carey, "Touch My Body" (LW No. 2, 12 weeks)
3. Usher feat. Young Jeezy, "Love in This Club" (LW No. 1, 12 weeks)
4. Ashanti, "The Way That I Love You" (LW No. 6, 11 weeks)
5. Rick Ross feat. T-Pain, "The Boss" (LW No. 7, 16 weeks)
6. Ray J & Yung Berg, "Sexy Can I" (LW No. 4, 16 weeks)
7. Jordin Sparks with Chris Brown, "No Air" (LW No. 8, 8 weeks)
8. Keyshia Cole, "I Remember" (LW No. 5, 26 weeks)
9. 2 Pistols feat. T-Pain and Tay Dizm, "She Got It" (LW No. 13, 16 weeks)
10. Plies feat. Ne-Yo, "Bust It Baby (Part 2)" (LW No. 17, 9 weeks)

Hot Country Songs
1. George Strait, "I Saw God Today" (LW No. 1, 12 weeks)
2. James Otto, "Just Got Started Lovin' You" (LW No. 3, 28 weeks)
3. Trace Adkins, "You're Gonna Miss This" (LW No. 2, 21 weeks)
4. Taylor Swift, "Picture to Burn" (LW No. 4, 16 weeks)
5. Phil Vassar, "Love Is A Beautiful Thing" (LW No. 5, 26 weeks)
6. Brad Paisley, "I'm Still a Guy" (LW No. 6, 10 weeks)
7. Rascal Flatts, "Every Day" (LW No. 7, 10 weeks)
8. Lady Antebellum, "Love Don't Live Here" (LW No. 9, 30 weeks)
9. Carrie Underwood, "Last Name" (LW No. 10, 7 weeks)
10. Kenny Chesney, "Better as a Memory" (LW No. 11, 6 weeks)

Hot Modern Rock Tracks
1. Seether, "Rise Above This" (LW No. 1, 10 weeks)
2. Puddle of Mudd, "Psycho" (LW No. 2, 26 weeks)
3. Weezer, "Pork & Beans" (LW No. 19, 2 weeks)
4. Atreyu, "Falling Down" (LW No. 3, 14 weeks)
5. Flobots, "Handlebars" (LW No. 7, 4 weeks)
6. The Raconteurs, "Salute Your Solution" (LW No. 4, 5 weeks)
7. 3 Doors Down, "It's Not My Time" (LW No. 5, 10 weeks)
8. Linkin Park, "Given Up" (LW No. 8, 8 weeks)
9. Death Cab for Cutie, "I Will Possess Your Heart" (LW No. 9, 6 weeks)
10. The Bravery, "Believe" (LW No. 6, 30 weeks)

Hot Chip To Rock For Zune, Play iTunes Festival

Anthony Miccio — Wed, 16 Apr 2008 11:00:00 EDT

Man, those Hot Chip guys sure love irony. They're in the middle off a month-long tour promoting Zune (remember Zune?) that will take them to Coachella—and then they're headed to Berlin to do their post-modern thing at the iTunes Festival! So whether you prefer AAC or WMA, you can easily get your hands on the best album of 2008. But which company does the band have more love for?

• Zune claims ownership of weekly "set of exclusive video podcasts from Hot Chip's most recent UK tour," but word of the iTunes Festival is the first thing you see on the band's Web site.
• There's also no reference to Zune in regards to the band's U.S. dates.
• In the "Buy albums" sidebar there's a link to iTunes for The Warning and no mention of the Zune Marketplace.
• Zune announced that Hot Chip was its "Ignition" artist in February (which "gives recording artists with new releases a unique channel to potentially reach tens of millions of consumers!"), but there's no reference to this anywhere on the band's site.
• Instead, on Jan. 29 whoever's writing Hot Chip's news section announced that iTunes was selling a "remix bundle" and a "bonus track bundle" for the single "Ready For The Floor."

You'd think Zune would demand some recognition for the tour support and the heavy on-site promotion they've given, but maybe they're just happy to be in the same room with an act that debuted at No. 109 on the Billboard Top 200.

Hot Chip Goes 'On The Road' with Zune [LiveDaily]
Hot Chip At iTunes Festival [Hot Chip's MySpace page]
Hot Chip Debuts Exclusive Track on Zune Marketplace February 26 [Ultimate Guitar]

iTunes Beats Wal-Mart As No. 1 Music Retailer... So What?

Anthony Miccio — Thu, 03 Apr 2008 16:30:00 EDT

You may have heard that iTunes has taken Wal-Mart's position as the top music retailer in the US. While this is probably a gradual inevitability, and iTunes sales have risen quickly over the last two years, the stats involved only cover the month of January 2008, a period influenced not just by holiday gift cards, but a lull in big album releases. With little new full-length product of note, it's no surprise digital sales would rise in overall percentage. There's also evidence that the slump in CD sales and the rise in digital-music sales are both slowing, and may even plateau. This doesn't "debunk" the report, but it does suggest that everyone should chillax about the end of tangible product, and see what craziness comes next. [ArsTechnica]

Hypebot is wondering if the stalled effort ...

Maura Johnston — Wed, 26 Mar 2008 12:45:11 EDT

Hypebot is wondering if the stalled effort to make more digital-music stores' catalog free of digital rights management is the fault of the stores or the major record labels. I have a third theory: The roadblock isn't really because of either side digging in its heels: It's because the "issue" of whether or not music should be free of DRM is one that doesn't really matter to 95% of consumers, as long as they can get the songs they've already purchased online to work on their computer/portable device, and so pouring a lot of money into a "solution" for this overhyped-by-the-tech-nerds problem isn't really as high a priority as, say, negotiating deals for possible subscription services or wrangling holdouts' catalogs onto their stores' virtual shelves. (I know, readers—it's hard to think that the opinions of people on the Internet might not be all that important in the grand scheme of things!) [Hypebot]

iTunes Leaks Raconteurs Album, Apple Switchboard Prepares For The Worst

Maura Johnston — Fri, 21 Mar 2008 13:30:54 EDT

Looks like the iTunes Store accidentally leaked the Raconteurs' Consolers Of The Lonely a few days before its Tuesday release—reports are filtering in from people who successfully purchased the album on both the US and UK versions of the iTunes store, and it's apparently popping up on the peer-to-peer services as well. (In the interest of reporting, I tried buying the record, only to be greeted with a "This album is no longer available" message.) Who among us would not love to be listening in on that angry phone call from Jack White? [The Modern Age]

Majors And Apple Looking To Open An All-You-Can-Hear Buffet

Maura Johnston — Wed, 19 Mar 2008 12:00:06 EDT

The Financial Times is reporting that Apple has been talking to the major labels about bundling unlimited music into iPhones and iPods, although the deal hasn't yet been done because of the amount of money Apple is willing to pay the majors for access to their catalogs. (The Cupertino device maker wants to give the labels $20 per device sold; in comparison, Nokia pays out $80 to labels for each device sold with its Comes With Music subscription plan.) The plan would tack $100 onto the cost of each iPod and $7-$8 onto each iPhone user's monthly bill, but apparently the majors are also lobbying for a clampdown on the number of tracks consumers can keep, with the desired provision allowing "customers to keep up to 40 or 50 tracks a year, which they would retain even if they changed their device or their subscription lapsed." I'm pretty skeptical about the whole idea—for reasons involving interoperability of the "all you can eat" catalog and previously owned music, the limitations of what the store will actually have if it ever launches, and the probably-inevitable DRM that will force the tracks to disappear once consumers stop ponying up money—but I'm always open to a second opinion, so after the jump, a few industry observers weigh in.

• "However creative label lawyers may be, how can this model fit with past or current recording and publishing contracts or government mandated royalty payments? Who will decide how the money is divided and when it is paid?... Instead of offering music as "pay once and hit the buffet table as often as you'd like forever", there other avenues that deserve serious exploration. Ad-supported music may be part of the answer. More broadly, better serving the consumer (aka fan) is central to the industry's future. Marketer Seth Godin wrote about artists building and monetizing their "music tribes" and models like Trent Reznor's multi-tiered pricing and Radiohead's "pay what you want" release have produced impressive results. Just as foodies skip the buffet and pay premium for gourmet, real music fans will support their pleasures with their wallets if they are offered to them properly. Until the industry understands and respects the bond that music creates with fans, no price will be too low." [Hypebot]

• "Apple gets to rejuvenate its slowing iPod line, and makes the iPhone even sexier. The flailing music labels get a slice of guaranteed income, bolstered by the world's most inventive consumer electronics company. And their belated embrace of the MP3 format means they're not locked into Apple for all their music sales: If they want a different deal with Amazon or anyone else, they can do so — the music they sell will work on iPods and iPhones. Is this trickier than it looks? A little. Current music subscription services have a complicated per-stream license structure, and that could get in the way. There are still debates about how to pay music acts and songwriters for digital sales. Etc. Whatever. If there's anything the music industry has learned in the last decade, it's that it has to move quickly, leave the lawyering for later, and make sure it gives consumers a better option than stealing. And this one, hypothetical as it may be, sure sounds like one to us." [Silicon Alley Insider]

• "Getting $20 from Apple per device will net the labels more than the $80 per device from Nokia because they don't move even half as much as Apple does." [Universal Indie Records/Coolfer commenter]

• "What this may mean for us as consumers, at least, would be that Apple is planning to bring the iTunes Wi-Fi Music Store to even more devices in the iPod line (or at least expand the capacity of the iPod touch to hold a subscription collection like this). If Apple really is planning to open up their library to a subscription, they should make it as easy as possible to obtain the music on demand." [The Unofficial Apple Weblog]

Apple in talks to sell iPod and iPhone with unlimited music [FT]

John Mayer Files A Bug Report

Maura Johnston — Wed, 19 Mar 2008 10:00:27 EDT

Sorta-sensitive singer John Mayer went back to a well-worn blogger well when he wrote up a recent iTunes crash—complete with screenshots!—on the latest iteration of his personal site. (I guess since he already went the "blogging his lunch" route, this was the only direction that he could take.) Mayer wonders if his report will be met with a reaction not unlike the ones that the cast of The Front Page has when a big story breaks, but I suspect that it'll just be met with relief that the missive doesn't just say "U SUCK ITUNES!!11one"

Report [John Mayer's Blog]

Billboard Does The Math On iTunes

Michaelangelo Matos — Thu, 13 Mar 2008 15:45:00 EDT

It isn't necessarily because the music industry is imperiled all over that the question of whether the iTunes Music Store is operating at a profit finds interest among industry folks. According to Billboard's Ed Christman, who did plenty of math and showed his work in his piece, the store is indeed making money, though precisely how much remains in question.

The Cupertino, Calif.-based company announced it had sold its 2 billionth download Jan. 6, 2007; its 3 billionth July 31, 2007; and its 4th billion Feb. 27. As such, Billboard estimates that the store sold 1.7 billion downloads last year, and that of that amount, 940 million tracks were sold in the United States and 732 million were sold abroad, as the company operates stores in 21 other countries.
If all 1.7 billion downloads were counted at the U.S. price of 99 cents, they would equal $1.7 billion in revenue last year. But when it repatriates sales revenue from other countries, it likely enjoys a bump thanks to exchange rates. For example, in the United Kingdom, iTunes charges 79 pence per track download, but that equals $1.56, according to Web site oanda.com.
So when revenue is brought back to the States, Billboard estimates iTunes' music download revenue at $1.9 billion last year, which is in line with the $2.7 billion in revenue it reported during calendar year 2007 for other music-related products and services. Those consist of iTunes Store sales, iPod services and Apple-branded and third-party iPod accessories.

The piece's coda notes that administrative costs and heavy advertising take their chunk. Nevertheless, I actually managed to read the whole thing without wondering where I was, which when it comes to me and hard math is an accomplishment.

Dollars & Cents: iTunes Store [Billboard]

Idolator Endorses: Digital DJ Mixes With Full-Length Tracks

Michaelangelo Matos — Fri, 07 Mar 2008 09:30:46 EST

This is a little late to the boat, but bear with me: Over the last couple of days I've noticed that DJ mixes sold through digital outlets are increasingly becoming a better financial deal. Since I tend to look for dance tracks based on other critics' recommendations, I had noticed that labels like Defected often put their DJ-mixed compilations on eMusic and other outlets with the songs at their original length. But two recent mix-CDs—Carl Craig's Sessions (K7) and Triple R's Selection 6 (Trapez), each of which contains more than 20 cuts—have done the same thing, making this a trend worth endorsing.

The Craig mix is especially instructive. On eMusic, iTunes, and the Amazon store, Sessions' 22 songs are available in their full-length versions. eMusic's subscription model means the full album price varies, about in the $5-$10 range; iTunes sells the whole bundle—including a digital booklet and two album-only tracks of the CD-length mixes Craig created for the brick-and-mortar trade—for $11.99. Amazon, which offers the same package minus the digital booklet, charges only $6.99. Beatport has the whole thing for $16.99. Say what you want about that price difference, though keep in mind that because Beatport caters to DJs it offers much higher bit rates (320 vs. eMusic's 192 and Amazon's 256)—and that it's still only charging a third as much for the whole as it would track for track. Of those four outlets, Triple R's Selection 6 is only available on Beatport (oddly, there it's only a single-track mix for $11.99) and eMusic, which is where it's available at full-length, song for song.

Obviously, dance labels make little enough money as it is thanks to the plummeting of the marketplace and the paucity of vinyl outlets (Ronan Fitzgerald recently wrote a column about the dance-vinyl marketplace here), and licensing tracks for mixes isn't generally a high-end income source anyway, unless you own rights to the Beatles or Hendrix and can get away with charging an arm or a leg for two minutes of "Tomorrow Never Knows" or "Crosstown Traffic." The Craig and Triple R mixes can do this because in the latter case, Trapez owns all the songs (the annual Selection mixes are showcases for the label), and in the former, half the songs are from Craig's Planet E label. A hat-tip to both for taking their chances that some of us want to hear as much as we can for a very good price.

Obviously American Idol is a crassly commercial ...

Maura Johnston — Mon, 03 Mar 2008 16:15:29 EST

Obviously American Idol is a crassly commercial enterprise, so it shouldn't be much of a surprise that the show's producers would try and insert product placement into any nook and cranny that can fit it. But really, Nigel Lythgoe and company—referring to an episode featuring current pop hits as ""Songs from iTunes' Current Top 100 Week"? I know you're excited about your little dalliance with Steve Jobs, but come on now. [MJ's Big Blog]

iTunes Becomes No. 2 Music Retailer Despite Majors' Efforts

Maura Johnston — Tue, 26 Feb 2008 13:15:31 EST

According to research by the NPD Group, the iTunes Store was the second-largest music retailer in the United States last year, behind only Wal-Mart. iTunes leapfrogged over Best Buy and Target—which came in second and third, respectively, to iTunes' fourth place the last time the NPD Group conducted their music-buying survey—as paid downloading experienced an overall spike of 50% between 2006 and 2007. Those downloads now make up 10% of all music sales, although unsurprisingly the rise in downloads didn't make up for the plunge experienced by CD tallies throughout the course of the year. Related to that, NPD is claiming that one million people just stopped buying CDs completely last year; maybe it's because of my scouring Soundscan during the year, but does that number seem a bit low to anyone else? [Reuters; HT Chris Molanphy]

Apple and American Idol have entered into ...

Maura Johnston — Mon, 18 Feb 2008 17:05:56 EST

Apple and American Idol have entered into a partnership that makes the iTunes Store the sole place to buy audio and video downloads of contestants' performances after the show. No word on whether or not promotion for iTunes' offering of Carly Hennessy's Ultimate High will be part of the deal, but we can all hope. [Silicon Alley Insider]

Jay-Z's Apple Photo Op Makes Fanboys Around The World Go OMG!!!11

mjohnston — Tue, 08 Jan 2008 11:05:06 EST

Is this shot of the surely-now-ex-HP spokeshandmodel and his ladyfriend using matching MacBooks during rehearsals for Jay's show at the 40/40 club in Vegas last week a sorta-subtle hint that Jay-Z and Apple will announce their long-rumored label venture at MacWorld next week? Or are these two just checking their e-mail on their friends' computers because BlackBerry access was limited by the rehearsal studio's thick walls? It's so hard to tell!

Caption This [Crunk + Disorderly]

Napster Serves Up Some Apple Whine In An Effort To Big-Up Its MP3 Offerings

mjohnston — Tue, 08 Jan 2008 08:53:07 EST

Sure, some people are really excited that all four major labels have started dropping digital-rights management from their online offerings. But according to Wired, these baby steps don't necessarily mean that music fans (at least, the ones who care enough to buy before they try) are going to be awash in MP3s starting tomorrow; in fact, the overwhelming majority of major-label wares that are still out there are locked up in some sort of copy protection. And to hear Wired—and the COO of Napster, whose company just unlocked its downloads in an effort to remind people that in 2000 it was the place to be for your unauthorized song-by-song downloads—it's all Apple's fault!

Still, more than 80 percent of the digital music market remains encoded with DRM, despite the announcements from the big labels. That's because of the highly popular iTunes Store, and Apple's iPod and iPhone. Those devices, with more than 100 million units sold, only play music protected by Apple's proprietary FairPlay DRM technology, or music that isn't protected at all. Apple, since 2003, has sold more than 3 billion music downloads, capturing more than 80 percent of the market.

Apple chairman Steve Jobs has repeatedly balked at licensing FairPlay for use on competing download services or devices — meaning music companies had to choose between using iTunes or going DRM-free if they wanted the songs to play on the all-important iPods. The industry stood by and allowed most of its music-download sales to come from Apple, but that is slowly changing.

Napster, the online music service that nearly a decade ago was synonymous with music piracy, announced Monday it was looking to strike unrestricted licensing arrangements with the Big Four. Right now, the subscription-based service's millions of downloads are not compatible with the iPod, which Warner chief Edgar Bronfman Jr. in September labeled the "default device" in the digital music scene.

"Talks are currently in progress with the labels," said Napster's Allen. He said the company anticipates selling unprotected music from the Big Four sometime in the second quarter.

"The move to MP3s is certainly a step in clearing up some of the dysfunction, and Apple's hermetically sealed proprietary system," Allen said.

As opposed to the hermetically sealed proprietary system that all of iTunes' competitors used—I mean, shoot, I would have loved to have at least tried some of the formerly PlaysForSure-protected services out there, but I was constantly told "No Macs Allowed." It got to be like that scene in Snoopy Come Home where Snoopy tries to visit Charlie Brown in the hospital after a while, only without that low baritone voice singing at me because I couldn't play any music. So by the time some services did open their door to my operating system, I'd given up^*.

The more I read music-industry types whining about Apple and iTunes and FairPlay and how iTunes has unfairly locked up the market through the dual crimes of making a well-designed player and a smooth shopping experience for people who want to buy music (compare the steps required in redeeming a Platinum Music Pass vs. those required to buy the same album from iTunes), the more I feel like executives are stubbornly refusing to listen to the old maxim "turnabout is fair play"—pun not really intended there, although if that was the intent when that system was first named back in the day, I have to say that it's kind of genius. Innovating better is the answer—not taking your ball and going home, or complaining about how unfair life is. And yes, I realize I sound like an Apple fangirl by saying this, but to hear these executives complain about their companies being "locked out" from iTunes is even more ludicrous when you think about how a chunk of the userbase (including people who make music!) has been consistently held back from consuming music legally thanks to the limitations of the products they've been hawking all these years.

Despite Move to MP3s, DRM Will Haunt Record Labels [Wired]

^* The exception: Rhapsody, mainly because it works on my TiVo in a pretty amazing way. But that's a subject for another post (once my TiVo gets hooked back up).

One-Week Superstar: Flo Rida's Hot 100 Sales Bonanza

Chris Molanphy — Thu, 03 Jan 2008 18:30:56 EST

Ed. note: Chris "dennisobell" Molanphy, our resident chart guru, looks at the upward, downward, and lack of movement on the Billboard Hot 100 in the latest installment of "100 And Single":

It's weeks like this when you begin to see why record execs fear the Internet and hate Steve Jobs. In a post-holiday frame where 98% of albums—the industry's cash cow—sell less than the week before, iTunes enjoys its annual post-Christmas, iPod-filling sales bonanza, fueling a record week of sales for 99-cent digital singles. The big beneficiary: Billboard's current Hot 100 champ, Flo Rida, whose No. 1 smash with T-Pain, "Low," becomes an all-out blockbuster, selling more downloads (nearly half a million) in a single week than any song in iTunes history.

The Magic of Post-Christmas: Ever since the dawn of accurate sales counts in 1991, we have learned more about the music-buying habits of the consumer, especially at holiday time. If the weeks leading up to Christmas give us a window into what people want to give each other—in other words, how our angelic sides behave—the week after Christmas tells us what the devil's whispering in our ears.

It was that very first post-SoundScan post-Christmas, after all, that gave Nirvana its dawn-of-a-generation moment, as hordes of teens home for the holidays in 1991 returned the Michael Jackson CDs their grandparents gave them for Nevermind.

In 1998, DMX invented the hip-hop December blockbuster in similar fashion, dropping his second album on the counterintuitive release date of December 22 and ringing up 670,000 first-week sales, mostly to kids whose parents would never put anything called Flesh of My Flesh, Blood of My Blood under the tree. The decade since has seen a score of hip-hop acts try to replicate the same feat, holding CDs until the last three weeks of the year, to try to get a piece of that unaccompanied-minor-with-a-gift-card dollar.

The dawn of the iTunes age has done for singles what SoundScan did for albums, offering a snapshot into not so much people's dirtiest impulses, as their most fleeting. Simply put, what songs do new iPod owners want to own now-now-now!!—and what artists do they never expect to own at full length?

Since the iTunes Store opened for business in 2003, songs both great and dreadful have benefited from the post-Santa sweepstakes, everything from OutKast's "Hey Ya!" and Snoop Dogg's "Drop It Like It's Hot" to D4L's "Laffy Taffy" and Fergie's "Fergalicious." Three of the aforementioned came from albums that were also big sellers; but all four songs, as digital downloads, momentarily outsold their respective albums, at least to that point (D4L's album never caught up with the sales of "Laffy Taffy").

Fifty-two weeks ago, "Fergalicious" moved 294,000 digital singles in the seven days after Christmas, setting the iTunes sales record that held until this week. It's interesting (blissful, almost) to recall a time, pre-"Big Girls Don't Cry," when Fergie was still perceived as a song-to-song act and her album was a semi-flop. One year later, with the Ferg crossed over to adult-leaning radio and The Dutchess triple-platinum, Fergie can rest easy. Which is good for her, because her iTunes record wasn't just beaten, it was obliterated.

Riches of an Embarrassment: Just by being at the right place—the top of the charts—at the right time, Flo Rida sells a mind-blowing 470,000 digital downloads, topping Fergie's year-old sales mark by nearly 60%. For the record, the country's top-selling single outdoes this week's top-selling album, Mary J. Blige's Growing Pains, by nearly two-and-a-half-to-one.

Given how flaccid "Low" is as a song, one wonders if a few thousand of those buyers, on their maiden voyage through iTunes sometime on Boxing Day, simply decided to click "BUY" on the site's current No. 1 seller as a 99-cent, what-the-hell lark. In general, what was already a hit before the holiday remains a hit afterward, just with more sales. (The exception: rising teen country star Taylor Swift, who rides two tracks, including one nearly year-old country hit, into the Top 20 for the first time.)

The Top 20 we've pasted below looks very static, positions-wise — but every song listed posts a digital-sales increase ranging from 123% to 330%. That former, smaller increase went to Sara Bareilles, whose "Love Song" was already selling strongly before Christmas. The latter, fatter increase belongs to Soulja Boy, whose old hit "Crank That" returns to the Top Five some four months after it peaked. The song's 245,000 in sales is higher than in any week the song was No. 1 on the Hot 100 last fall. If I were Soulja Boy, I'd be worried: a nation of iPod carriers have voted on his career trajectory with a cacophony of 99-cent mouse clicks.

Stuff to Watch: The one Hot 100 chart factor we haven't discussed at all this week is radio airplay, and there's a good reason. Right up to New Year's Day, radio playlists are dominated either by holiday fare or, in the case of Top 40 stations, year-end hit surveys. That makes it a nearly negligible factor on this week's chart, where sales have such an outsize influence. But as I type, playlists are returning to normal, and that plus the inevitable comedown in digital sales will make next week's chart rather topsy-turvy. Expect the old hits that saw comebacks this week, the "Crank That"s and "Stronger"s, to plummet again, and rising hits like Wyclef's "Sweetest Girl" and Chris Brown's "With You" to resume their march upward. The one current riser to watch will be Bareilles—her smaller sales increase this week suggests that the song is already a growing hit and if airplay catches up, she could make a play for the big chart's Top Five after the new-year shakeup hits.

The top 20, with last week's position and total weeks charted in parentheses:
1. Flo Rida feat. T-Pain, "Low" (LW No. 1, 10 weeks)
2. Alicia Keys, "No One" (LW No. 2, 17 weeks)
3. Timbaland feat. OneRepublic, "Apologize" (LW No. 3, 22 weeks)
4. Chris Brown feat. T-Pain, "Kiss Kiss" (LW No. 4, 16 weeks)
5. Soulja Boy, "Crank That (Soulja Boy), Soulja Boy Tell'em" (LW No. 11, 25 weeks)
6. Fergie, "Clumsy" (LW No. 5, 12 weeks)
7. Colbie Caillat, "Bubbly" (LW No. 7, 27 weeks)
8. Finger Eleven, "Paralyzer" (LW No. 6, 30 weeks)
9. Sara Bareilles, "Love Song" (LW No. 9, 9 weeks)
10. Jordin Sparks, "Tattoo" (LW No. 8, 14 weeks)
11. Baby Bash feat. T-Pain, "Cyclone" (LW No. 13, 23 weeks)
12. Wyclef Jean Featuring Akon, Lil Wayne & Niia, " Sweetest Girl (Dollar Bill)" (LW No. 12, 16 weeks)
13. Sean Kingston, "Take You There" (LW No. 15, 9 weeks)
14. Kanye West, "Stronger" (LW No. 20, 23 weeks)
15. Rihanna feat. Ne-Yo, "Hate That I Love You" (LW No. 10, 18 weeks)
16. Kanye West feat. T-Pain, "Good Life" (LW No. 14, 16 weeks)
17. Taylor Swift, "Our Song" (LW No. 26, 14 weeks)
18. Chris Brown, "With You" (LW No. 16, 5 weeks)
19. Taylor Swift, "Teardrops on My Guitar" (LW No. 23, 30 weeks)
20. Natasha Bedingfield feat. Sean Kingston, "Love Like This" (LW No. 18, 11 weeks)

Biting Into The Latest Revival Of That "Jay-Z And Apple Are Going To Put On A Big Show" Rumor

mjohnston — Thu, 03 Jan 2008 09:30:05 EST

Gadget-obsessed blogs are atwitter with the recently revived rumor that Jay-Z would be teaming up to start a label with Steve Jobs and Apple, with the Boy Genius Report citing "a high-up person attached to Jay (no, not who you're thinking)^*" as saying it's a go and that the label will be announced at the next MacWorld conference. But even though Jay-Z has a pretty an open calendar as far as music-biz-related executiveships go, is this chatter just a little bit of a far-fetched fanboy fantasy? Takes from around the blogosphere after the jump. (The naysayers seem to have a little more weight to their arguments—i.e., they go beyond "OMG!!!!111"—but that could be my "oh, this is old news/well they sure kissed and made up fast after the whole American Gangster-sales kerfuffle/hey where's Beyonce in this version of the rumor anyway?" impulse talking.)

OMGGGG11!!!111!!1 KILL THE RECORD INDUSTRY FOREVER!!
• "Jay-Z and Jobs are both brilliant businessmen, and the move would make sense on a number of levels: The labels almost view iTunes as a competitor now, the industry landscape is rapidly transforming, and whoever finds the magic formula for a new kind of label/distribution firm stands to make a lot of money as they establish the new paradigm of the industry. And iTunes already is something like a label." [Gizmodo]

• "[Y]ou can probably be sure that whatever music is made through this new label will only be available via iTunes and I would have to imagine giving Steve Jobs' rant early last year, will be DRM-free.... All I know is that if this rumor is true, it's going to be another massive blow to the traditional record companies." [ParisLemon]

No Way
• "Don't believe the hype. Jay's tenure at Def Jam was far from an overwhelming success, and he starred in an HP commercial. That alone would give Apple pause in most cases. Secondly, I don't see what Apple gains by sharing their venture with Jay as the executive in charge. The company would be much better served following the cue of Starbucks and launching a label with high-profile, established artists making new, high-margin recordings under tight distribution. And, on that level, the source of this rumor becomes a bit more clear. I do believe it's possible that Apple might launch a record label — they got clearance from the last deal with Apple Corps, if I recall correctly. It might even be iTunes-only. But if Jay-Z's involved, it's for a recording contract — not as business leader. Then again, "launching" a label could easily mean putting out the first album..." [Cult Of Mac]

• "While we're sure there's a nugget of truth to this, Jobs would be shooting himself in the foot if he started an Apple-branded label. Let's break down why this is kinda goofy. The idea is that Jay-Z, whom recently left Def Jam, will launch a label partnered with Apple. The problem is, Steve Jobs can't do that; the other labels would call shenanigans (rightly so, too) and jump ship, there would be federal trust issues at play, and more importantly, Apple is banned from ever starting a record label due to previous litigation with the Beatle's Apple Records. If those aren't good enough reasons for you, then we don't know what else to say. That doesn't mean, though, that Jay-Z isn't starting a label himself, in fact that's likely. And we wouldn't put it past the genius to make it the first mainstream digital downloads-only label. In fact, we'd not be surprised if he made an exclusive distribution deal with Apple. That would totally make sense, and not really cause any of the previously mentioned headaches." [CrunchGear]

Maybe?
"I can tell you that Jay flat out denied this when somebody asked him about it back in October.... I can't tell you if this is actually going to happen or not, but I do know that the music industry needs some kind of earth shattering wake up call. This may or may not turn out to be it. Something needs to be done sooner rather than later." [Nah Right]

^* Uh, who would we be thinking of? Jermaine Dupri?

Radiohead's Distribution Strategy Still Kinda Newsworthy, We Guess

mjohnston — Wed, 02 Jan 2008 13:10:15 EST

Back in September, Radiohead spurned the iTunes Music Store because they wouldn't offer their records in full-album format, but the band has seemingly changed its tune for In Rainbows, which is the first—and only—full-length from the band to be available at Apple's virtual shop. The album's songs are available as a la carte downloads from iTunes and Amazon, with the price lower (and the rest of the band's catalog available) at Amazon's still-fledgling MP3 store. Will this new availability cut into In Rainbows' thriving-for-three-months filesharing tallies? The album's already No. 1 at Amazon's MP3 store, so maybe! At the very least, this piece of news will surely bring the band more Google News results, which is the real currency of today's info-soaked world.

In Rainbows [iTunes]
In Rainbows [Amazon]

Indie-label download service eMusic pits ...

mjohnston — Wed, 12 Dec 2007 09:15:51 EST

Indie-label download service eMusic pits its 20 best-selling albums against iTunes' top 20, one by one, mano a mano. Among the surprises: Fall Out Boy and Stars fight to a draw; the Across The Universe soundtrack bests the Apples In Stereo (!?); and somehow, the person masterminding these battles has no idea who Colbie Caillat is. (Lucky.) [17 dots]

iTunes Proves People Really Are As Tasteless As You Think They Are

jharv — Tue, 11 Dec 2007 12:30:45 EST

"I hope you guys do one of these [Year-End Analysis] posts for iTunes' most downloaded artists, that list is insane." And having just spent a half-hour typing out^* iTunes' Top 20 best-selling songs, Top 20 best-selling albums, and Top 10 best-selling videos, I can vouch for the insanity. Want a 2007 list based not on the personal aesthetic whims of a couple of bloggers or an editorial staff trying to look hip or a publisher second-guessing what its audience wants/expects to appear on a year-end list, but a democratically chosen list based around raw commerce, a list voted for by the public, comprised entirely of what they were most willing to spend their .99 on during the last 12 months? Well here it is. And the public sucks. The full lists are after the jump, but for now my shell-shocked first thoughts.

THE GOOD: Maroon 5's louche dude funk gets a bad rap (though you'd have a hard time holding us to that sentiment when one of their ballads is playing) but even after following the numbers during the year, we're still a little surprised to see them topping the albums list ahead of Kanye. A few decent long-players stud the rest of the list, and a "Weird Al" appearance (in the Top Videos category) always brings a smile. But more than any single artist, people really plunked down for some Timbaland this year, no matter who he was featuring and/or producing. And with the exception of "Apologize," we're more than OK with hearing any of Tim's 2007 hits for the billionth time compared to...
THE BAD: Colbie Caillat! Daughtry! Akon! "Party Like A Rock Star"! A squeaky Stefani (who's at least not yodelling)! Nickelback mugging with half of America! Fergie at No. 1! When I die and go to blogger hell, this Top 20 playlist will be looped for all eternity, broken up only by the occasional airing of the complete works of Sufjan Stevens, as the editors of Stereogum beat me around the neck with rolled-up press releases.
THE WHAAAA? Some basic figures for you to contemplate and/or shudder over. Within the Top 100 best-selling singles of 2007 we have: Four Akon songs, four Avril Lavigne songs (including one remix), three Daughtry songs, two Fall Out Boy songs, three Fergie songs, five Justin Timberlake songs, two Kanye songs, two Maroon 5 songs, two My Chemical Romance songs, two Nickelback songs, two Pink songs (?!), three Rihanna songs, two Sean Kingston songs, two T-Pain songs (not counting collabos), and three Timbaland songs (not counting productions). That's nearly half of the Top 100 controlled by 15 artists, or a quarter of it controlled by seven if we only count the ones that scored three or more slots. Plus Feist was in the Top 20 albums, but download sensation "1-2-3-4" doesn't even show up until No. 80! So much for the new model.

[EDIT: The full list of the Top 100 best-selling singles is now posted after the jump thanks to the Excel skillz of commenter extraordinaire therichgirlsareweeping, and looking at it has cooled my ire a little, as many more decent-to-great songs start appearing the further down you go. However that Top 20 is, with a few exceptions, still awful awful awful.]

Top Singles

1 Big Girls Don't Cry (Personal)- Fergie
2 The Sweet Escape- Gwen Stefani
3 Hey There Delilah- Plain White T's
4 Girlfriend (Radio Edit)- Avril Lavigne
5 Glamorous - Fergie
6 Stronger - Kanye West
7 Makes Me Wonder- Maroon 5
8 Don't Matter - Akon
9 The Way I Are (feat. Keri Hilson & D.O.E.) - Timbaland
10 Party Like a Rock Star - Shop Boyz
11 Crank That (Soulja Boy) - Soulja Boy Tell 'Em
12 Umbrella (feat. Jay-Z) - Rihanna
13 Apologize (feat. OneRepublic) - Timbaland
14 Rockstar - Nickelback
15 Bubbly - Colbie Caillat
16 Give It to Me (feat. Justin Timberlake & Nelly Furtado) - Timbaland
17 Say It Right - Nelly Furtado
18 Buy U a Drank (Shawty Snappin') - T-Pain featuring Yung Joc
19 Cupid's Chokehold / Breakfast in America (feat. Patrick Stump) [Bonus Track] - Gym Class Heroes featuring Patrick Stump
20 It's Not Over - Daughtry
21 This Ain't a Scene, It's an Arms Race - Fall Out Boy
22 Thnks Fr Th Mmrs - Fall Out Boy
23 This Is Why I'm Hot - Mims
24 Beautiful Girls - Sean Kingston
25 Home - Daughtry
26 Irreplaceable - Beyoncé
27 What I've Done - Linkin Park
28 What Goes Around.../...Comes Around Interlude - Justin Timberlake
29 If Everyone Cared - Nickelback
30 Fergalicious - Fergie
31 No One - Alicia Keys
32 Shut Up and Drive - Rihanna
33 The Great Escape - Boys Like Girls
34 How Far We've Come - Matchbox Twenty
35 Cyclone - Baby Bash
36 U + Ur Hand - P!nk
37 Pop, Lock & Drop It (Video Edit) - Huey
38 Kiss Kiss (feat. T-Pain) - Chris Brown
39 Summer Love/Set the Mood Prelude - Justin Timberlake
40 Never Again - Kelly Clarkson
41 A Bay Bay (Main) - Hurricane Chris
42 Bartender (feat. Akon) - T-Pain
43 Beautiful Liar - Beyoncé & Shakira
44 Rehab - Amy Winehouse
45 Face Down - The Red Jumpsuit Apparatus
46 Here (In Your Arms) - Hellogoodbye
47 Wait for You - Elliott Yamin
48 First Time - Lifehouse
49 Girlfriend (Featuring Lil' Mama) [Dr. Luke Mix] - Avril Lavigne
50 Gimme More - Britney Spears
51 I Wanna Love You - Akon featuring Snoop Dogg
52 The Way I Live - Baby Boy Da Prince featuring P. Town Moe
53 Paralyzer - Finger Eleven
54 Teardrops On My Guitar - Taylor Swift
55 Smack That (Dirty) - Akon featuring Eminem
56 Me Love - Sean Kingston
57 Potential Breakup Song - Aly & AJ
58 Sorry, Blame It On Me - Akon
59 SexyBack - Justin Timberlake & Timbaland
60 Walk It Out - Unk
61 Welcome to the Black Parade - My Chemical Romance
62 We Fly High - Jim Jones
63 Waiting On the World to Change - John Mayer
64 I Tried - Bone Thugs-N-Harmony featuring Akon
65 Suddenly I See - KT Tunstall
66 Last Night (Featuring Keyshia Cole - Diddy featuring Keyshia Cole
67 Keep Holding On - Avril Lavigne
68 Lip Gloss - Lil Mama
69 S.O.S. - Jonas Brothers
70 Runaway Love - Ludacris
71 Wake Up Call - Maroon 5
72 Good Life - Kanye West
73 Who Knew - P!nk
74 Candyman - Christina Aguilera
75 Get It Shawty - Lloyd
76 Because of You - Ne-Yo
77 Misery Business - Paramore
78 Big S**t Poppin' (Do It) - T.I.
79 Like a Boy - Ciara
80 1234 - Feist
81 Nobody's Perfect - Hannah Montana
82 Hate That I Love You - Rihanna
83 Icky Thump - White Stripes
84 Over It - Katharine McPhee
85 Ayo Technology (feat. Justin Timberlake) - 50 Cent
86 Lost In This Moment - Big & Rich
87 Everything - Michael Bublé
88 Low (feat. T-Pain) - Flo Rida
89 My Love - Justin Timberlake & T.I.
90 Ice Box - Omarion
91 Whine Up (English Version) - Kat DeLuna
92 Over You - Daughtry
93 I'm a Flirt (Remix) [Radio Version] - R. Kelly featuring T.I. & T-Pain
94 When You're Gone - Avril Lavigne
95 Go Getta - Young Jeezy featuring R. Kelly
96 We Takin' Over - DJ Khaled featuring Akon, T.I., Rick Ross, Fat Joe, Baby & Lil' Wayne
97 Dance Floor Anthem - Good Charlotte
98 Teenagers - My Chemical Romance
99 So Small - Carrie Underwood
100 LoveStoned/I Think She Knows Interlude - Justin Timberlake

Top Albums

1. Maroon 5, It Won't Be Soon Before Long
2. Kanye West, Graduation
3. Amy Winehouse, Back To Black
4. Daughtry
5. Colbie Caillat, Coco
6. Linkin Park, Minutes To Midnight
7. High School Musical 2
8. Timbaland, Shock Value
9. John Mayer, Continuum
10. Hairspray (Soundtrack)
11. Fall Out Boy, Infinity On High
12. White Stripes, Icky Thump
13. Justin Timberlake, FutureSex/LoveSounds
14. Norah Jones, Not Too Late
15. Feist, The Reminder
16. Across The Universe (Soundtrack)
17. The Shins, Wincing The Night Away
18. Lily Allen, Alright, Still
19. Rascal Flatts, Still Feels Good
20. Modest Mouse, We Were Dead Before The Ship Even Sank

Top Videos
1. Nickelback, "Rockstar"
2. Rihanna feat. Jay-Z, "Umbrella"
3. Soulja Boy Tell 'Em, "Crank That (Soulja Boy)"
4. Avril Lavigne, "Girlfriend"
5. "Weird Al" Yankovic, "White And Nerdy"
6. Justin Timberlake, "What Goes Around... Comes Around"
7. Shakira and Beyonce, "Beautiful Liar"
8. Fergie, "Glamorous"
9. Carrie Underwood, "Before He Cheats"
10. Sean Kingston, "Beautiful Girls"

^*I love you guys, but I just couldn't type out the full 100 entries for each of these lists, let alone the nine lists broken down by genre. And please don't tell me there's an easy way to copy and paste this info from iTunes or I will cry and/or feel like a feeb.

Warner Music Group CEO Makes Kissy Faces In Apple's Direction

mjohnston — Wed, 14 Nov 2007 17:25:02 EST

Warner Music Group CEO Edgar Bronfman has long been critical of iTunes' pricing for digital tracks, but now that his stock is in the tank and people are gleefully reeling off the screwups he's presided over during his tenure at the top, he's singing a new tune. (OK, maybe he got a free iPhone from someone, since he seems so ready to sing the praises of that device.)

"You need to look no further than Apple's iPhone to see how fast brilliantly written software presented on a beautifully designed device with a spectacular user interface will throw all the accepted notions about pricing, billing platforms and brand loyalty right out the window. And let me remind you, the genesis of the iPhone is the iPod and iTunes - a music device and music service that consumers love," he said.

"For years now, Warner Music has been offering a choice to consumers at Apple's iTunes store the option to purchase something more than just single tracks, which constitute the mainstay of that store's sales. By packaging a full album into a bundle of music with ringtones, videos and other combinations and variation we found products that consumers demonstrably valued and were willing to purchase at premium prices. And guess what? We've sold tons of them. And with Apple's co-operation to make discovering, accessing and purchasing these products even more seamless and intuitive, we'll be offering many, many more of these products going forward."

The chairman also issued a warning to mobile operators, and offered advice to those aspiring companies hoping to cash in on that underdeveloped market, according to MacUser.

"The sad truth is that most of what consumers are being offered today on the mobile platform is boring, banal and basic," Bronfman said. "People want a more interesting form of mobile music content. They want it to be easy to buy with a single click - yes, a single click, not a dozen. And they want access to it, quickly and easily, wherever they are. 24/7. Any player in the mobile value chain who thinks they can provide less than a great experience for consumers and remain competitive is fooling themselves."

A single click! Information architect-friendly rhetoric like this from people running music companies is nearly revolutionary. Although I guess this means that Edgar isn't all that high on the ringle.

Warner reverses stance, praises iTunes [MacNN; ht Chris Molanphy]

Apple responds to the launch of Amazon's ...

mjohnston — Tue, 16 Oct 2007 12:40:29 EDT

Apple responds to the launch of Amazon's MP3 store with a few new developments on the iTunes Plus front: Indie labels will (finally) be added to the DRM-free fray, and unprotected tracks offered by the store will have their prices cut from $1.29 to 99 cents a song. Elapsed time between Ars Technica posting this news and an irate commenter yell-typing "jesus CHRIST I better be getting an Apple refund or there will HELL TO PAY": 53 minutes. Come on, Internet, step up your game! [Ars Technica]

The number of teens who were willing to lie ...

mjohnston — Thu, 11 Oct 2007 10:57:12 EDT

The number of teens who ~~were willing to lie to an adult with a clipboard~~ are acquiring their music through legit sources, and not peer-to-peer services, has apparently gone up, according to a survey by research firm Piper Jaffray. According to the research, P2P's market share has allegedly fallen from 72% to 64% among teenagers, while the percentage of teens who say they actually pay for their music—with iTunes, Amazon, and eMusic being the biggest stores among the kids—has gone up to 36% (from 28%). Unfortunately, there seems to be no "do you use both" option in the survey, an option which I'm going to guess is a little closer to the truth for people in all generations. [Billboard.biz]

Will The Launch Of AmazonMP3 Result In A Digital-Music Price War?

mjohnston — Thu, 27 Sep 2007 17:38:48 EDT

It's been a couple of days since Amazon's foray into the MP3 world finally opened, and so far the response has been positive despite the lack of two major labels. (It probably helps that one of the majors on board is Universal, which puts out more music than pretty much anyone else.) But over at TheStreet.com, one writer sees Amazon's entry into the market as a sign that prices for MP3s—and not files with copy protection—will take a nosedive, thus bringing music down to a price point where people might actually want to pay for it again:

Amazon's new store may cause that retaining wall to crumble, prompting many Apple customers to buy songs that offer them better options.

But what about iTunes Plus, the service Apple launched earlier this year that lets you buy DRM-free songs? Well, here's where things will really start to get interesting:

ITunes Plus sells those DRM-free songs for $1.29 each. Amazon sells the same songs for either 89 cents or 99 cents. That's a discount of between 23% and 31% from iTunes' DRM-free songs. Many of Amazon's best-selling songs — including those in the Top 100 albums — are retailing for the lower price.

There are two reasons this is interesting: First, it's setting up a new tech-titan smackdown between Apple CEO Steve Jobs, the master strategist, and Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, the Crazy Eddie of the Internet.

Bezos is doing here what he does best: Building market share and volume by slashing prices. Jobs won't take that sitting down, and he is probably plotting some cunning strategy to hold on to its iTunes customers.

Second, it's leading to a full-blown price war. In fact, the first shot has been fired by Amazon with its 31% discount of popular songs. Over time, more companies are going to be jumping into the DRM-free market, each one trying to build market share with bigger discounts.

In a few short years, Apple and iTunes could be locked into the kind of deep-discounting that Tower Records and CD Wherehouse were engaged in during the years before digital downloads swept both aside. That's going to help rejuvenate volume sales of songs and albums — and bring their prices down to earth.

But over time, it's also going to ratchet down the margins of music stores like Amazon and Apple. In announcing its new music store, Amazon didn't say how the discounts would eat into its margins, but you can bet analysts will be grilling Bezos on this in next month's earnings call.

In the abstract, this argument makes sense, especially given Amazon's aggressive pricing in other arenas. But watching the labels' attempts to squeeze every bit of money out of their catalog that they can makes me think that most of them, save the indies that have decided to stick around eMusic, will probably be slow to adapt to this brave new world of low margins. In the eyes of some majors, "variable pricing" seems to be code for "inflating the prices of 'emphasis tracks' to ringtone levels."

And then there's the question of whether or not some old-school companies will be able to give up the digital-rights management ghost at all; despite the floundering of services that offer protected Windows Media files, as Silicon Alley Insider noted this morning, the Rolling Stones' earliest music, which is controlled by ABKCO Music, isn't available at Amazon's store, because the company isn't keen on distributing its music without some sort of protection.

Either way, this brave new future may be the only way to save the recorded-music business—despite the fact that it's contingent on the margins at labels being slashed dramatically, and the high-rolling executive living being curbed, or cut entirely. Which makes me think that it won't happen until the business gets a new generation of people in charge, although it'll probably only really work if said generation hasn't been spoiled by their forefathers' excesses and who understand that ships, belts, and budgets need to be tightened.

Let the MP3 Price Wars Begin [TheStreet.com]

Apple Isn't Giving The Touch To MP3 Blogs

mjohnston — Fri, 07 Sep 2007 13:19:36 EDT

The scores of devoted music-blog readers who thought that the wi-fi-enabled iPod Touch would allow them to keep up with their favorite sites' MP3s are going to be disappointed: the gadget isn't going to allow over-the-air downloads of MP3s posted to the Web, although Apple is looking into streaming-radio possibilities. Well, so much for that traffic boost.

Apple's IPod Touch Will Not Allow Downloads of MP3s from the Web [Listening Post]

The iTunes/Starbucks Deal Could Be Sweeter Than A Vanilla Steamed Milk On A Cold Day

mjohnston — Wed, 05 Sep 2007 15:15:46 EDT

Sure, the iTunes Wi-Fi Music Store is an idea whose time is long overdue, but of the announcements made at today's Apple event, the one that held the most interest for me was the partnership between the computer/music giant and Starbucks Coffee, which has also been trying to market music lately:

When your Wi-Fi powered iPod Touch or iPhone, or any laptop, is within range of a Starbucks, a button will pop up on the music store interface. Tap it, and you get songs recently played in that Starbucks, plus whatever music Starbucks is promoting at the time. Access to Starbucks' Wi-Fi network will be free while you are shopping.

Rollout will start in NYC and Seattle, hitting 600 stores. By November, the SF area will have 350 stores. Apple and Starbucks plan to have all shops in major cities ready to go by end of 2008, and every Starbucks that has Wi-Fi by end of 2009.

Now, I'm not so into Starbucks' musical offerings for the most part, but this idea is just jaw-droppingly killer—if it's implemented properly (a big if, I know), it has the potential to integrate the hearing-music and buying-music experiences in the real world as well as the iTunes Store does on the desktop. (Not to mention that it'll save the poor baristas at least a couple of "what's this song playing right now?" questions.) Of course, if the prices of the songs were lower, perhaps there'd be an even higher purchase rate—and yes, I know I'm talking about this in the context of a store that charges $2.50 for a cup of coffee. But I really like where this idea can go (do you know how many times I've written down lyrics while out and about, in hopes of Googling them later?), and the potential it has for making ever-ubiquitous "background music" at least a little less anonymous. An optimistic outlook? Perhaps. But given that the two companies involved have actually been able to sell music lately, an area where so many other outfits have failed spectacularly, I'm willing to see where this goes.

Apple Partners With Starbucks For Free Wi-Fi Access to iTunes Music Store [Gizmodo]

The iTunes Wi-Fi Music Store: It's coming, ...

mjohnston — Wed, 05 Sep 2007 13:56:07 EDT

The iTunes Wi-Fi Music Store: It's coming, it's going to work on the new, Wi-Fi-enabled iPods, and most importantly, it'll allow you to make drunken impulse purchases of songs from anywhere in the world, and not just at home in front of your computer. [Gizmodo]

Building The "Perfect" iTunes Beast, Cont'd.: Is The World Supposed To Be Flat?

mjohnston — Wed, 29 Aug 2007 15:32:14 EDT

Little did I know yesterday, when I dashed off a quick post about the allegedly "perfect" iTunes graphic-equalizer setting, that I'd be setting off a comments-box firestorm; quite a few people not only bristled at the suggestion that a one-size-fits-all setting could be implemented for music (especially given the lossy nature of MP3s, crummy speakers you're listening to said lossy files through, etc.), but a lot of people were offended by the idea of tweaking the EQ settings at all. Bad-album-art tipster extraordinare Lucas Jensen, who makes and records music, hit me backchannel with an explanation for that rationale that, in these terms, pretty much makes sense:

"The perfect setting equals no setting, just good quality rips and good speakers. People work HARD to get stuff sounding the way that they want it to—we don't just mix any way we want. I think bass and treble knobs are plenty. Put it this way: If you don't like the colors in a movie, you don't adjust the tint in your TV. You just don't like the color. It's not totally analogous, but it's the choice of the director—or the musical artist—however misguided, to make that sound the way it is. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. Admittedly not all speakers are made the same, so compensations can be made. But a perfect setting—theoretically—is a flat one."

Earlier: Building The Perfect iTunes Beast: Can It Be Done?

Beatles Not Coming Together With iTunes Just Yet

mjohnston — Wed, 29 Aug 2007 12:10:22 EDT

According to Silicon Alley Insider, the debut of the Beatles' catalog on iTunes—which has been rumored to be on the digital-music service for at least forever in Internet time—won't be announced next week, but one important innovation for the iPhone user in your life will: The ability to custom-program ringtones from songs that have already been purchased on the iTunes Music Store at what seems to be no extra cost. (Unless they're from Universal Music Group, of course; they're too busy trying to colonize a voicemail system no one uses.)

Source: No Beatles On iTunes Next Week [Silicon Alley Insider]

Building The Perfect iTunes Beast: Can It Be Done?

mjohnston — Tue, 28 Aug 2007 17:34:25 EDT

The productivity blog 43 Folders, which is run by a dude who was in a band that opened for the Wrens in 2005, has posted what it claims is the "perfect" graphic-equalizer setting for iTunes. Since we're on a bit of a perfect-things kick today, here's the magic formula:

Open the equalizer, and from the pop-up menu, select "Make Preset." Call it "Perfect," because it is, and set the following levels, from left to right (skip the Preamp section): db +3, +6, +9, +7, +6, +5, +7, +9, +11, +8 db

My hard drive died about 10 days ago (cards and flowers can be sent to the usual address) and I've been simultaneously recalibrating my computer and blogging since I got a new one; if nothing else, the 43Folders post made me realize that I'd been listening to all my normal songs in non-EQ'd fashion ever since I got my computer back, so I tried my best to replicate the settings above. I have to say, the MP3 of Unrest's "Make Out Club" does have, as the designer of these settings claimed, a bit more "pop," but surely one of our also-committed-to-their-computers readers will have an opinion on whether or not I should re-recalibrate these settings—especially in the moments when I want to listen to something that isn't guitar-based.

Perfect iTunes [43Folders, via Lifehacker]

Is Amazon's MP3 store ever going to launch—and ...

mjohnston — Fri, 20 Jul 2007 12:25:52 EDT

Is Amazon's MP3 store ever going to launch—and what labels are in its stable? Related: When will non-EMI-affiliated labels' DRM-free tracks show up on iTunes? [Hypebot]

iTunes Store Opens Up Its Own Bargain Bin

mjohnston — Fri, 06 Jul 2007 10:00:50 EDT

At left, a pair of blogger-friendly offerings from iTunes' brand-new "Next Big Thing" store, where prices are insaaaane (well, cheaper than a used CD, anyway). We're guessing this isn't exactly what Universal Music Group had in mind when it pressured Apple for "variable pricing."

iTunes Store Spins Cut-Rate Album Downloads [Digital Music News]

Universal Ditches Its iTunes Contract

mjohnston — Mon, 02 Jul 2007 09:10:51 EDT

Universal Music Group is ready to rain on Apple's iPhone parade—the company has refused to renew its iTunes contract:

The Universal Music Group of Vivendi, the world's biggest music corporation, last week notified Apple that it will not renew its annual contract to sell music through iTunes, according to executives briefed on the issue who asked for anonymity because negotiations between the companies are confidential.

Instead, Universal said that it would market music to Apple at will, a move that could allow Universal to remove its songs from the iTunes service on short notice if the two sides do not agree on pricing or other terms in the future, these executives said.

...With the shift, Universal appears to be aiming to regain a bit of leverage — although at the risk of provoking a showdown with Mr. Jobs.

In the four years since iTunes popularized the sale of music online, many in the music business have become discouraged by what they consider to be the near-monopoly that Mr. Jobs has held in the digital sector — the one part of the music business that is showing significant growth. In particular, Mr. Jobs's stance on song pricing and the iPod's lack of compatibility with music services other than iTunes have become points of contention.

By refusing to enter a long-term deal, Universal may continue to press for more favorable terms from Apple or even explore deals to sell its catalog exclusively through other channels. If Universal were to pull its catalog from iTunes, Mr. Jobs would lose access to record labels that collectively account for one out of every three new releases sold in the United States, according to Nielsen SoundScan data.

On the flip, though, you have the executives' hope that exclusive Universal content will result in an exodus from the most popular download service—which seems slim, especially when one considers those competing services' lack of compatibility with iPods (and iPhones). (Unless DRM-free services like eMusic, or Amazon's still-not-launched digital store, are on UMG's radar at this point.) Since a large part of this dispute is about pricing, it's not entirely out there to wonder if Universal will try to negotiate for a piece of the music-based revenue Apple gets through iPod sales via a Zune-like revenue sharing deal as well, although it's pretty unlikely that Steve Jobs will be interested in that scenario at all. Either way, here's one piece of advice to the Universal folks: If you're hoping that new 50 Cent tracks will cause the masses to embrace Windows Media-based downloads, you may want to listen to his new songs first. Yes, the beat is better than his "Amusement Park" backing, but opening verses about Vitamin Water windfalls = not really the best way to entice people into dropping a lot of cash for a new portable-music setup.

Universal in Dispute With Apple Over iTunes [NYT]